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    Recoleta Cemetery

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    Malena
    The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is unlike a normal cemetery. It contains elaborately carved above-ground structures that hold the remains of Argentina's most famous figures. The cemetery was originally the garden of a Franciscan convent and was converted into the city's first public cemetery in 1822. It has since been remodeled and contains unique tombs and statues, such as those of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak and her dog, and Salvador María del Carril and his wife who are depicted with their backs turned to each other.

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    Recoleta Cemetery

    Uploaded by

    Malena
    53 views2 pages
    The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is unlike a normal cemetery. It contains elaborately carved above-ground structures that hold the remains of Argentina's most famous figures. The cemetery was originally the garden of a Franciscan convent and was converted into the city's first public cemetery in 1822. It has since been remodeled and contains unique tombs and statues, such as those of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak and her dog, and Salvador María del Carril and his wife who are depicted with their backs turned to each other.

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    RECOLETA CEMETERY

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    The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is unlike a normal cemetery. It contains elaborately carved above-ground structures that hold the remains of Argentina's most famous figures. The cemetery was originally the garden of a Franciscan convent and was converted into the city's first public cemetery in 1822. It has since been remodeled and contains unique tombs and statues, such as those of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak and her dog, and Salvador María del Carril and his wife who are depicted with their backs turned to each other.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    53 views2 pages

    Recoleta Cemetery

    Uploaded by

    Malena
    The Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina is unlike a normal cemetery. It contains elaborately carved above-ground structures that hold the remains of Argentina's most famous figures. The cemetery was originally the garden of a Franciscan convent and was converted into the city's first public cemetery in 1822. It has since been remodeled and contains unique tombs and statues, such as those of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak and her dog, and Salvador María del Carril and his wife who are depicted with their backs turned to each other.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    If you think of cemeteries as depressingly dark, underground affairs, Buenos Aires’ Recoleta

    Cemetery will turn that on its head – not least because most of the graves are built above
    ground.

    Considered one of the most unusual cemeteries in the world, the site was declared the city’s
    first official public burial place in 1822. Aside from being the resting place of the deceased, it is
    completely unlike a normal cemetery. The place is full of elaborately carved scroll-work and
    stately pillars that only reach up to your shoulder because all the structures are weirdly mini;
    it’s more magical than macabre. The burial site of Argentina’s most famous figures including
    Evita herself, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy,
    and military commanders like Julio Argentino Roca.

    History

    Franciscan Recollect monks (los recoletos) arrived in this area, then the outskirts of Buenos
    Aires, in the early eighteenth century. The cemetery is built around the Convento de la
    Recoleta and a church, Nuestra Señora del Pilar, built in 1732.

    The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first
    public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Inaugurated on 17 November of the same year under the
    name of Cementerio del Norte, those responsible for its creation were the then-Governor
    Martin Rodríguez, who would be eventually buried in the cemetery, and government minister
    Bernardino Rivadavia.

    The 1822 layout was done by French civil engineer Próspero Catelin, who also designed the
    current facade of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. The cemetery was last remodeled
    in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect Juan Antonio
    Buschiazzo.

    Some stories

    The girl who died twice: Rufina Cambaceres (1883-1902)

    It was at Rufina Cambaceres’ 19th birthday party when a friend told her that her mother was
    having an affair with Rufina’s boyfriend. Distraught, Rufina goes to her room where she is later
    found dead—a heart attack is suspected. She is placed in the family plot at Recoleta Cemetery.
    That night, the groundskeeper hears voices coming from the mausoleum. Investigation the
    next day finds the coffin moved several inches. When opened, scratches are found on the
    inside of the coffin and all over Rufina’s face and neck. The poor woman was mistaken for dead
    and tragically suffered a horrible second death trying to escape.

    The girl and her faithful companion: Liliana Crociati de Szaszak (1944 – 1970)

    Liliana Crociati de Szaszak was in Innsbruck, Austria on her honeymoon when an avalanche
    swept over her hotel and she died of suffocation. Rumour has it that she and her dog Sabú
    were so attached that he died in Buenos Aires at the same time. The life-size statue of Liliana,
    supposedly in her wedding dress, is strikingly beautiful. Interestingly, her beloved dog stands
    next to her; no one is quite sure what happened to her hubby.
    A grudge for eternity: Salvador Maria del Carril and Tiburcia Domínguez

    An enormous mausoleum commemorates the life of Salvador María del Carril and his wife
    Tiburcia Domínguez. The weird thing is, the busts depicting the two have their backs to each
    other. The story goes that del Carril, an important figure in Argentinian politics, was outraged
    by his wife’s spending. He got so angry that he published a letter in major newspapers advising
    merchants that he’d no longer be paying for any of his wife’s expenditures. That didn’t go over
    well with Tiburcia who published her own letter describing what a horrible man her husband
    was and vowing she’d never speak to him again. Although they stayed together, she
    apparently kept her promise and didn’t speak to her husband for the remaining 20 years of his
    life. Tiburcia lived another 15 years, throwing lavish parties. Before she died in 1898, she
    requested that her bust look away from her husband. Ouch…holding a grudge for eternity
    can’t be good.

    The ugly duckling tomb: Gen Tomás Guido (1788 – 1866)

    After all those disturbing stories, I’ll end with a nice one. The tomb of Tomás Guido, an
    important general in the Argentine War of Independence, is unlike any other at Recoleta. It is a
    rough-looking thing made of irregular shaped rocks. His son, poet and politician Carlos Guido y
    Spano, said: “Anyone can hire builders and artists. Out of respect for my father, I’m building
    this tomb myself, one rock at a time.”

    In case you’re wondering, that green one next to the general’s belongs to Admiral Guillermo
    Brown, an Irish-born admiral and founder of Argentina’s navy. His tomb is unique, featuring
    marine-inspired carvings. The green colour is in honour of his Irish heritage.

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